Sandra McNeel and Amiko Mayeno,

Environmental Health Investigations Branch

California Department of Public Health

June 2012

A way to measure the

chemicals in a person’s

body.

Scientists usually test for

chemicals in samples of

blood and urine.

What You Can and Can’t

Learn From Biomonitoring

What can you learn from

Biomonitoring?

• About whether or not certain chemicals

are in your body

• How much of these chemicals are in your

body

What you can’t learn?

• Where the chemicals came from

• How much of a given chemical can cause

health problems

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Biomonitoring California Goals

Senators Perata, Ortiz, Gov. Shwarzenegger

Organizational Structure

California Department of Public Health

Department of Toxic Substances

Control

Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment

Scientific Guidance Panel

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Participation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Current Activities of

Biomonitoring California

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120

2007 2009 2011

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Figure 1: Chemicals that Biomonitoring California

Laboratories Can Measure - Progress, 2007-2011

Environmentalphenols

FlameRetardants -PBDEs

FlameRetardants -Other BFRs &CFRs

Metals

PFCs

Abbreviations: BFRs - brominated flame retardants; CFRs - chlorinated flame retardants; PAHs - polyaromatic hydrocarbons; PBDEs - polybrominated diphenyl ethers; PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls; PFCs - perfluorinated chemicals

*Includes all counties where at least one sample has been collected; analysis is ongoing.

Biomonitoring California Project Collaboration

Progress By County as of May 2012

Reporting Individual Test

Results to Participants

Opportunities

Raise awareness

Increase healthy behaviors of individuals

Challenges

Little is known about many chemicals

Time consuming

1.00 0.9

5.8

0

2

4

6

8

10

Your level National median Level of concern forwomen*

Me

rcu

ry

Your mercury level compared to the national median and level of concern

Your Mercury Results

1.00 0.60

0.98

8.23

0

2

4

6

8

10

Your level Minimum Median Maximum

Me

rcu

ry

Your mercury level compared to the other OCFA firefighters in FOX

* The level of concern

for adult men is 10

micrograms per liter.

Levels for all firefighters in FOX

Chemicals Measured in

Biomonitoring California studies

Metals in blood (cadmium, lead, mercury)

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs)—12

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

Organochlorine pesticides (DDTs, chlordane)

Selected brominated flame retardants (BFRs)

Phthalates

Pyrethroid and Organophosphate (OP) metabolites

Bisphenol A (BPA), triclosan

Metals in urine (arsenic, mercury)

Hydroxy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OH-PAHs)

(red = chemicals that may be found in fish)

1

Biomonitoring for Mercury

Chemical

Forms

“Best” biomonitoring

test ?

Biomonitoring blood- days blood - days weeks

Timeframe urine – months hair – months/yrs

inorganic

organic

(methyl)

Mercury

elemental

blood

hair urine blood

urine

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Should we Measure Mercury in

Blood or Urine? • Total blood mercury levels increase with

greater fish consumption (Dewailly et al., 2001; Grandjean et al., 1995;

Mahaffey et al., 2004; Sanzo et al., 2001; Schober et al., 2003)

• Urine mercury levels increase as

more occlusal surfaces of teeth

are filled with mercury-containing

amalgams (Becker et al., 2003)

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Biomonitoring Measures

Exposures From All Sources of

Mercury Use other methods to

identify likely sources:

• Questionnaires

– Dietary history

• Fish consumption

• Drinking water sources

• Herbal remedies

– Personal care product use

• Skin-lightening cream

– Amalgam dental fillings

• Environmental sampling

– Air, water, fish, sediment

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Maternal-Infant Environmental Exposure

Project

• Collaborators: Biomonitoring California, UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley

• Measure and compare levels of chemicals in 92 pregnant women and their newborns

• Identify sources of exposure to a subset of chemicals through questionnaires

• Develop and test an approach to inform and educate participants about their results

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How many times a day, week month or year do you eat:

1. Fish from stores, markets or restaurants. This

includes any fish that is fresh, frozen, smoked, dried,

or canned, such as canned tuna or sardines.

2. Fish caught by you or someone you know. Please

do not include fish that came from stores, markets, or

restaurants.

3. Where are these fish caught?

Example Fish Consumption Questions

used by Biomonitoring California (interviewer-administered questionnaire)

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Biomonitoring identified High

Mercury Exposure in a Mother and

Infant • Elevated blood mercury detected – San

Francisco study

– One mother-infant pair

– Over twice the level that triggers early notification1

• Follow-up investigation with UCSF staff, county

health department, and US EPA

• Source of mercury identified as face cream

• Health Alert developed following prior CDPH

investigation disseminated to clinics

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1The early notification level is 5.8 µg/Liter, and is based on the level set by

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for pregnant women. 22

23

http://www.ehib.org/paper.jsp?paper_key=MSKC

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Mercury Consumer Alert

24 http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/UCM294876.pdf

Selected Results from Biomonitoring

CA Studies and Collaborations to

date*

Check our website http://www.oehha.ca.gov/multimedia/biomon/index.html later this year for the full

report titled “Biomonitoring California Data Summary Report”

Chemical Number of

People Tested

Detection

Frequency Metals in whole blood

Cadmium 529 61%

Lead 529 100%

Manganese 452 100%

Mercury 529 97%

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What’s Coming Up in Biomonitoring

CA as to Chemicals and Fish?

• Mercury: investigate cases with high levels – link to fish only in individual cases where high organic

mercury levels are further investigated

• PCBs: limited ability to link to fish – overall human PCB levels decreasing

• PBDEs: limited ability to link to fish – Examine fish consumption in addition to other sources

• Subpopulations – oversample Asians in upcoming

study of Kaiser Permanente members

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What can other biomonitoring

studies tell us about exposure

to chemicals from eating fish?

27 from Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper

bnriverkeeper.org

Blood Mercury Values by Coastal/Inland Areas (5,400 US adult women – NHANES 1999-2004)

from Mahaffey et al, Env Hlth Perspect, 2009

n=974

All coastal women n=2603

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US women of reproductive age* with blood

total mercury values over 3.5 ug/L** , by

study year

Mercury Values

NHANES cycle (years)

N

3.5 –

5.7 ug/L

> 5.8 ug/L

% %

1999-2000 1,709 7.5 6.9

2001-2002 1,928 4.1 3.7

2003-2004 1,728 5 2.4

* Women 16-49 years old

** Corresponds to 5.8 ug/L in cord blood (US EPA)

from Mahaffey et al, Env Hlth Perspect, 2009

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Blood mercury by estimated consumption frequency of fish and shellfish

(NHANES 1999-2004)

from Mahaffey et al, Env Hlth Perspect, 2009 30

Mercury Levels in US Women

(NHANES 2007-2008 data)

• Percent exceeding mercury reference

doses:

3.5 µg/L – a little over 5%

5.8 µg/L – less than 5%

• Demographic characteristics

–Black women have significantly higher

mercury levels on average than White or

Mexican American women

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The people who make

Biomonitoring California happen

Josephine Alvaran

Frank Barley

Paramjit Behniwal

Reber Brown

Shirley Cao

Sungyeol Choi

Robin Christensen

Sabrina Crispo-Smith

Rupali Das

Dina Dobraca

Amy Dunn

Ruifang Fan

Laura Fenster

Jeff Fowles

Ryszard Gajek

Qi Gavin

Phillip Gonzaga

Tan Guo

Weihong Guo

Suhash Harwani

Sara Hoover

Duyen Kaufman

Farla Kaufman

Gail Krowech

Michael Lipsett

Nancy Lopez

Amiko Mayeno

Sandy McNeel

June-Soo Park

Myrto Petreas

Sissy Petropoulou

Laurel Plummer

Indranil Sen

Jianwen She

Beverly Shen

Darcy Tarrant

Alanna Viegas

Jed Waldman

Dongli Wang

Miaomiao Wang

Yunzhu Wang

Berna Watson

Todd Whitehead

Rana Zahedi

Lauren Zeise

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Staff listed are funded by a variety of sources, including state funds and Cooperative Agreement

Number 5U38EH000481-02 from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thank You! Questions?

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